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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Appendix XXIII. Viator et coruus (Perry 551)

Verbis saepenumero homines decipi solere

Quidam per agros deuium carpens iter
AVE exaudiuit, et moratus paululum,
adesse ut uidit nullum, corripuit gradum.
Iterum salutat idem ex occulto sonus.
Voce hospitali confirmatus restitit,
ut, quisquis esset, par officium reciperet.
Cum circumspectans errore haesisset diu
et perdidisset tempus aliquot milium,
ostendit sese coruus et superuolans
AVE usque ingessit. Tum se lusum intelligens
"At male tibi sit" inquit, "ales pessime,
qui festinantis sic detinuisti pedes."


Latin text from Phaedrus at The Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart (London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb), contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or in Latin. Invaluable.